Fairmont grad embraces digital recording
Matt Jenkins of West Virginia-based metal act Tears of Olympus cut his teeth in traditional recording studios. However, the 1991 Fairborn High School graduate recently transitioned to digital home recording for singles like “The Devil Needs a Ride,” which dropped Thursday.
In July 2023, the band released the six-song EP called “A Lie in the House of Echoes,” its first new collection of songs in four years. Jenkins and bandmates Tobin Davis (bass) and Ray Venham (drums) recorded the material in one-day sessions over an eight-month stretch with Matt Horton at Post Pro Studio in Raleigh, N.C.
“Doing the EP was awesome,” Jenkins said. “I wanted to do it. The bass player and drummer at the time had never been in the studio and I wanted to get them in that setting. We had what I thought was some really cool music. We wanted people to hear, but it cost us $3,500 to do six songs.”
“The Devil Needs a Ride” is the second single Jenkins recorded using the digital program Logic Pro. The first, “Worm Food,” was released in November 2023 and features Daytonian Brian Harris on drums.
“Focusing on singles has been weird but cool,” Jenkins said. “Instead of spending thousands of dollars and all this time putting something together that other people may or may not like, now we can do one song at a time in my living room. I like that approach. I can focus more energy on one song, one emotion, one story and one sound.
“If you put it out there, people like it and they buy it, awesome,” he continued. “If they don’t like it and it flops, well awesome. You learned something and maybe they’ll like the next one. If they don’t like that one, it’s cool, give me a week and I’ll give them another one.”
Jenkins was in his early 30s when he left the
Miami Valley for West Virginia. He lived there for about seven years before a recent seven-year stint in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. In January, he returned to West Virginia, where he’s working on two singles for summer release. He’s also rehearsing with a new version of Tears of Olympus.
“I’ve got my original bass player from here,” Jenkins said. “He was on the first single and the first record we did. We’ve got a new drummer coming down from Athens. Hopefully we’ll be out playing with a full 45-minute set by late summer. I’d like to try to get back to Dayton by fall.”
For more information on the band, visit tearsofolympus.bandcamp.com.